an alternate little house
by Merri Hasch
Summary: Mary, Laura, and Carrie are being raised by the Edwards in this series instead of Ma and Pa Ingalls! read and see how differently their lives turn out!
1. Chapter 1

**A new version Alternate little house Chapter one (A Mother's day surprise): (Plus a new series of a story): **

Grace Edwards was busy today cooking a big meal for her extended family, she has her children to be thankful for as well as the used to be Ingalls children. She was hoping that Isaiah would come back from sleepy eye soon with adoption forms so they could adopt the Ingalls children to be one big happy family. It was soon going to be mother's day and Grace was busy getting the house cleaned up and spotless.

She was working on it extra hard to so everything is nice and pretty. She was putting fresh cut flowers in a vase to sit on the kitchen table as the center piece when Mary had come in from playing outside. Mary looks at Grace until Grace turns to look at her Grace replies, "Well, child don't stand there with the door open come look at my pretty flowers!"

Mary shuts the door, now Mary was eleven and Laura was nine years old now, Grace would always wonder if they would completely forget their Ma and Pa. Grace remembers that awful time when Caroline was taken away from them by Indians and never to come back home again, then Charles got sick and died a year later, now when Grace looks at Caroline's little girls she is grateful that they choose them to come live with instead of someone else.

Grace knows that Carrie has been the most difficult one to accept change in her living environment, since her parents have been gone. So, Isaiah (who sometimes feels extra sorry for her), is always taking Carrie somewhere with him as well as Laura these days those three ever have any time apart. The only thing that bugs Grace these days is that she just can't get Carrie to call her Ma like Mary and Laura does now.

Grace even got used to Mary and Laura calling Isaiah Pa now days. It was an adjustment but the family made it through the rough spots with three kids of their own along with three more to adopt it was a challenge that Grace wanted to accept because she knew her friend Caroline (if she was here), she wouldn't have it any other way.

Grace got her mind back on her project, and showed Mary the flowers she was planning to use for a center piece of the kitchen table for this year. Mary smiles at how pretty they were, she says "OH I did find some daisies and wild roses too". "Here they are". Mary takes her hands from behind her back to say "Sort of part of our mother's day present to you, Ma!" Grace smiles with tears coming through her eyes, she hugs Mary tightly when Isaiah came in with Carrie, on his shoulders and Laura holding his hand on the other side.

Grace looks at Isaiah and says "You remembered the papers didn't you?" Isaiah puts Carrie down on the floor and she runs to the table, Grace lets Carrie play with one of the flowers even though Mary was almost ready to give Carrie a good scolding. Grace stops Mary and gives into Carrie giving her one of Mary's flowers to play with. Isaiah digs through his shirt to get out a brown envelope with the adoption papers. Mary and Laura both smile when they see those. Grace sheds another tear of joy she hugs Mary again since she is closest.

Grace remarks "Well, girls how about you help me set the table and after a quick supper we can start working on filling out the adoption papers?" Mary and Laura agreed, then came in John Jr, Alisha, and Leah from playing out in the woods, and they seen the papers that Isaiah had just laid down on the kitchen table. John Jr, stands beside Mary and says "Oh those came today?" Isaiah says "Yes son you may have more sisters after we get these filled out and approved!" John and Mary look at each other with a smile across their face. So soon everyone had started to make the kitchen move Mary and John helped with getting the hot pans and dishes on the table for the center and Laura with help of the little ones set the table with plates, place mats and the like.

Finally dinner table was set, Grace was at the head and Isaiah on the other end, Mary, John, Laura on one side, Leah, Alisha and little Carrie on the other, their table was full, plates were full, and glasses were too. Grace smiles at everyone while Isaiah says grace for all; Carrie gets out of her seat and runs over to Grace to hug her. Grace smiles even bigger. Little Carrie looks up at Grace and says "I love you Ma". Grace let some more tears fall from her eyes. She says slowly, "You know, even though Mother's day is only a few days away I have already gotten the best mother's day present ever!" I am a ma to you kids now, all of you, and that is the best present of all!"


	2. New final story Chapter two

Laura and Nellie fight Little House, connection with Alternate Little house story (Chapter two):

After a wonderful mother's day present for her ma who is now Grace Edwards Laura went back to school with her sister Mary and her other adopted brothers and sisters, John Jr, Leah and Alisha all feeling good about how quiet and peaceful their weekend went. Mary and John Jr walked together holding hands on one side of Mary, while Laura and her other sisters on her left. No one seemed to care that they was walking up to the school yard all full of smiles, well except for the one and only Nellie Olsen.

Nellie was standing behind a shade tree in the school yard, she waiting for the right time to pick on Laura. Nellie finally comes out when Laura wasn't looking she was talking to her adopted brother and sisters and Mary. Nellie says "Hope you enjoyed mother's day! Laura!" Laura looks at Nellie and says "Well, yes I did!" Nellie smirks and says "you're an orphan now don't have a real family no more!" Laura turns to face Nellie with a scowl look on her face, she almost yells "Take it back Nellie! Now!" Nellie says sheepishly half afraid "Why? It's the truth! You're going to be a good for nothing orphan!" Mary steps in after she turns to see what was going on; Mary says "Not so we're getting adopted! Why do you think your better than we are!?"

Nellie smiles in snobbish way to reply "My Ma says so!" Mary smirks and says "All hog wash Nellie Olsen! That is all you are full of!" John Jr steps over to see nothing happens he replies "Come on ladies time to go to class let's forget the argument! Now!" everyone breaks it off except Nellie and Laura who keep giving each other the eagle eyes.

All through class time Mrs. Beadle had to keep a watchful eye on Nellie and Laura since they wouldn't let their fight go out in the school yard. Nellie actually wrote a note while Miss. Beadle wasn't looking It went something like this (to taunt Laura of course):

You're an orphan Laura Ingalls!

Never be anything!

No one likes you never will!

Nellie folds it up and got the other children to pass the note to Laura, Miss. Beadle was giving a lecture of the civil war not knowing there was one or going to be one brewing in her class before long.

Laura got the note and read it, she was mad beyond words, Mary turned to see what Laura was doing looking up from her reading, she reads the note right with Laura she turns to where Nellie was sitting and gives her a scolding look before Miss. Beadle turned away from the black board.

Finally school was done for the day the children rushed out of school like usual except for Mary and Laura they always seemed to stay to help Miss Beadle tidy up the place for tomorrow. Laura was still sitting at her desk when Mary went up to wipe down the black board for Miss Beadle, Laura sat there with her head down, and Miss Beadle looked up at Laura to see what she was doing. Miss Beadle spoke to her, "Laura what is the matter dear?" Laura looks up sad at Miss Beadle and says "This note I got from Nellie Olsen". Miss Beadle says "Do you mind sharing it with me dear?" Laura hands her the paper and Miss Beadle reads it with a look of being upset look on her face, she looked back at Laura as soon as she was done reading the short mean note.

Miss Beadle, smiles to say "Don't worry about it Laura, I will talk to Nellie and her mother tomorrow okay? Mind if I keep the note for reference?" Laura nods in agreement Mary was done wiping down the black board, the school building looked like there was no one ever in it. Miss Beadle, Mary, Laura and the Edwards Children all walked to their place together, enjoying each other's company, and stories along the way.

Finally at the Edwards place Grace was outside watering some plants when Miss Beadle came up the drive with the children at her side. Grace came over to her and said a very nice "hello and won't you come in for tea?" Miss Beadle says "Why yes I think I will. You children go along and play". Laura is the ring leader as they all drop their books to go play by the barn.

Grace and Miss Beadle go into the house Miss Beadle sits down with her purse pushed to the side on the table, Grace gets her tea pot which by that time it was screaming off the stove, she pours Miss Beadle a cup first and then herself at the middle of the table.

She sits the tea pot back on the stove and then she pulls out the bench to sit down with a spoon to stir her hot tea. She looks at Miss Beadle who is blowing on hers to get it to cool down, Grace declares, "Dear where are my manners! I need to get you a spoon too!" Miss Beadle replies "Oh no need to go to all the trouble, I'm fine". Grace comes back with the spoon and Miss Beadle accepts it greatly.

Grace takes a small sip of tea and asks "How is everyone doing in school this semester Miss Beadle? Miss Beadle replies "Oh most of them are doing quite well; Mary and Laura despite their traumatizing experience have been doing splendid work with their grades". Grace smiles and exclaims "Well, that is good to hear, I am glad they're doing well John Jr. too?"

Miss Beadle nods yes, Then Isaiah walks in with Carrie and says "dear I sent in the adoption papers today I hope they will come back to us approved!" Grace and Miss Beadle smile, then Mr. Edwards's replies, "Oh hello Miss Beadle sorry I didn't say hi sooner". Miss Beadle replies "it's quite alright; I am just here on something that happened in school today between Laura and Nellie once again!"

Grace says in disappointment "Did Laura hit Nellie again?" Beverly says kindly "No dear not this time it was more Nellie's doings than Laura's Nellie wrote this awful note to her and had it passed around in class, I think she was trying to embarrass her for some reason". Isaiah shrugs his shoulders as he sits down to exclaim to Beverly "Maybe if Nellie does this act again, let Laura just punch her eyes out!" Grace scolds Isaiah for even mentioning the thought out loud to her teacher. Grace complains "Now you know if Caroline was here that would not be tolerated!" Isaiah replies "No but Charles might, if he was here, since we've been going around and around about those two maybe you just ought to let them fight it out somewhere? It's a thought".

Laura comes inside from playing out in the barn she is all excited about something, Laura rushes up to Isaiah and says "Thank you Mr. Edwards, I mean Pa!" Grace looks at Isaiah in a confused way so does Beverly, Laura's teacher. Isaiah says "You found my present for you didn't you out in the barn?" Laura nods "yes" and Grace asks "Dear what did you do now?" Isaiah says "let's all go out to the barn and see!"

So everyone gets up forgetting their cups of tea and head on out to the barn. Laura was leading the way first too excited to wait on everyone, and once they got there Grace didn't know what to say, Isaiah got Laura a horse!

Laura squealed with excitement when she was finally allowed to go into the stall and start to pet it. Grace and the children along with Beverly saying her good byes to walk her self-home stood there staring at Laura's extravagant gift.

Grace looks towards Isaiah and replies "What on earth possessed you to do such a thing! We can't afford another horse to feed!" Isaiah replies "Horse needed a home dear, Laura needs to learn to ride, and so I figured they make each other a good team some day!" Grace smirks and then asks full of concern for everyone's safety "Is this horse safe to ride?" Isaiah says cheerfully "why ask a silly question like that? With all of our kids around by the time they get done playing with her she be broke and gentle like a lamb!"

Grace then stands with her hands across her chest she looked like she was ready to blow, at Isaiah's dumb purchase for the day, she asks calmly not to scare everyone "how much did you give for her?" Isaiah says "No need by next year or two she be ready to breed we could be working on race horses dear! Laura here can train; this horse can teach her the business and be success!" Grace sighs a long one, and then she exclaims "How is this going to help Laura become a civilized lady like Caroline had wanted?"


	3. Chapter 3

Little House an Alternate version (Connected with the Alternate story): Chapter Three: Life's New Experiences.

Every day after school, now Laura has been out in the barn with her new horse playing with her getting to know her instead of studying. Grace went out there to keep an eye on the pair since Isaiah has been picking up more hours at the mill. After Charles had passed away Isaiah took over Charles's position at the mill and now works close with Hanson at the mill. Now Isaiah is like almost a foreman at the mill working longer hours so Grace is always keeping an eye on Laura and her new horse to make sure nothing bad happens to either of them.

Laura gets out of the stall to grab some brushes to brush her new horse's black coat. Grace says "She sure is shinny isn't she?" Laura smiles as she starts to brush her, she replies "Yes she is Ma, I like her coat shinny like a diamond should be". Grace smiles as she pets Laura's new horse to tell her "Dear, but not all diamonds always shine up to all of their potential".

Laura stops for a moment to try to figure out what Grace meant by her last words, she says "What did you mean?" Grace goes into explaining more "Well some people only do enough work to get by on and call that good enough, and that is all they do, I don't accept that way of thinking and neither should you". Laura says "Well I try and I will try to ride her too so she can be trained to do a lot of cool things". Grace smiles to say "Well, dear I hope she will work out for you, but be prepared for disappointments when working with animals". Laura says hopefully "I am sure we will get a long and learn to work together". Grace got done petting the new horse, and starts to leave when she saw Mary and John Jr. sitting on a bench out in the back yard having their own special time together.

Mary says "Did you know that Miss Beadle thinks you're going to graduate soon?" John replies "Yes Mary we had talked about it off and on, and I am getting pretty good grades, as far as right now is concerned ". Mary smiles to say "You might get to go to college soon John won't that be wonderful?" John sighs to say "Well, Mary yes and no I mean I got roots here and you, don't really want to go too far away". Mary smiles and holds John's hands to say "For now we won't talk any more about it, just enjoy our time together, I mean college is far away yet, so instead of worrying about it let's just forget for a while and have fun". John smiles and says "Yeah let's not grow up to fast come on let's go out to the creek for a while and hang out". Mary nods in agreement John turns his back to see his Ma standing at the entry way of the barn watching her children John walks up to her and asks "Ma is it okay if me and Mary go to the creek for a while?" Grace replies "Yes dear, when you come back supper will be ready". John smiles to say "thanks Ma".

John walks over to where Mary was standing and they both took off for the creek to have some alone time from everyone else. Grace turns then back to Laura and her new horse she was taking off the halter and putting on a bridle Grace stops Laura and her horse by standing in the door way, Grace asks "Laura what do you think you're doing?" Laura replies "I want to try to ride her just a little bit". Grace puts a tight grip on the reins below Laura's hands to say "I forbid it Laura you know the rules, no riding an unsafe horse until Isaiah is around to watch you!" Laura says "I have to try beside now we got her so gentle!"

Laura says "I'll get her out to the corral there to see how she does I just want to do one round before supper please Ma?" Grace finally caves against her better judgment as she looks into the horses eyes Grace knew that she didn't trust the untrained horse to be as safe or as gentle as Laura claims but she knew Laura was going to do it any ways.

Laura went to the corral and got the gate closed without much help from Grace. As Grace forgot about checking on supper warming up in the stove she took to watching Laura like a hawk working with her new horse. She knew Laura didn't even have a saddle for her yet but she still was thinking about riding her.

Laura walks with her horse around the corral going all the way around several times just making sure the horse was going to behave and get the feistiness out of her. Grace watches nervously since the horse always seemed to have a fast pace prance to her and always held her head up high extremely high like she was more Arabian type of horse than anything.

Laura was watching her horse to see how high strung of a personality she was and what she was dealing with, she knew her Pa didn't have a lot of time to help her train the horse so Laura decided to take the jump and see what she could do.

As Laura was walking with her horse Grace didn't like this horse in particular she wish Isaiah would of taken more time to find her one that could have been a little calmer in personality. As Grace watches the two pair she gets more nervous as the young horse steps with high steps and very quickly, sometimes even getting ahead of Laura for a bit when she shouldn't. Grace didn't know a lot about horses she let that go to Isaiah for deciding what kind of horses to use for the farm work and riding purposes.

Carrie had opened the door to Grace's house and called her to come inside She let Laura know that she was going inside to see what Carrie had wanted. Laura nodded to let Grace know she got the message, and Laura finally stopped her horse near the fence of the Corral.

Laura lead the horse to stand near the fence Laura had climbed on the top rail to hop on the back of her horse, and did! Laura sat straight up on the horses back with her legs dangling down, the horses sides she quickly made the rope that she lead with into reins to guide the horse around the corral. She nudged the horse ever so gently to move, which she did slow and steady.

…..

While Laura was learning all about horse training Mary and John were busy learning about something else far more inmate and sincere. Mary and John was exploring behind the woods where the creek was. Mary stopped to look at the water moving in the creek she saw her own reflection in the water itself. Mary says "John the water is so beautiful and clear here, it's amazing that I can see myself in it. John smiles at Mary to say playfully "yeah don't forget the rocks down on the bottom! They can hurt!" Mary playfully pushes John Jr around a bit. John then takes Mary's hand into his and says "Come on I found something here that might interest you". Mary asks John "What is it dear? Something special?" John turns to Mary and says "Yes you can say that dear".

John finally gets to the cave where he wanted to show to Mary. He stops and clears away some of the weeds blocking their path. John says to Mary "Well dear what do you think?" Mary walks a head a little and then says "What are we going to do with a cave dear?" John smiles and says "A lot of things it could be our special place Mary! And a hide out too!" Mary smiles as she is just catching on to what John was trying to tell her. She said "I am thinking it can be a wonderful place John! Let's go inside can we?"

John leads Mary inside the cave, while John waits for Mary to catch up, he notices there was a small water fall inside the cave, john makes the remark, "Mary I thought of us when I first found this cave here, but I didn't know there was a water fall on this side of the cave". Mary walks a little to stand on the other side of John to watch the waterfall trickle down real slow at first and then as it got closer to the bottom a little bit faster. Mary says gently to John, "John if I didn't know any better you brought us here to you know!" John turns to smile at Mary to say "So what if I did! Not going to hurt anything and besides I love you Mary!"

John turns to face Mary and he holds her in his arms and says to her "I love you dear, don't you see this moment was meant to be for us, and only us! We need to take this moment and enjoy it!" Mary says "Please John no more talking let's just get lost in the moment lets loose ourselves to all this privacy that we never had before".

Mary and John lost each other that day the two became one and a united front on that very moment. John was the first to say "I love you Mary Ingalls! I am glad I am here in your presence". Mary smiles as she runs her fingers through John's hair and starts to unbutton his shirt, she says "yes I love you, always have and always will". John and Mary backed up against the wall of the cave, kissing each other. They went to the back side of the water fall kissing and losing each other into a fiery passion.

Now it was almost dusk and John and Mary sat next to each other out of breath, John says "I love you, this day was the best". Mary smiles and says "yes it was can we get back to the others?" John grabs his clothes and he also gets Mary's dress, he says "I suppose we should so no one would know what we're up too!" Mary smiles and she stops John for a moment to say "thanks for bringing me out here, this was a nice little break from being around my sisters all the time!" John and Mary hurry up to dress and get their shoes back on so they can get back to the house for their supper.

Finally Mary and John walked out of the cave more united than ever, walking together hand in hand to show their unity, and what little did they know that despite their committee to each other will bring troubles ahead from others around them! Is Mary and John stepping into the land of forbidden love? (To be Continued).


End file.
